


gladys

by vincentvanno



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Ghoulies, Hospitals, Post 2x21, and jellybean, i'm excited about gladys, injured!jughead, jughead might be jugdead?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-12
Updated: 2018-05-12
Packaged: 2019-05-05 17:59:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14624058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vincentvanno/pseuds/vincentvanno
Summary: They wouldn't have been on this bus.He would’ve been walking to school with them that morning.He wouldn’t have been on the brink of death, lying broken and bruised on a hospital bed.But he is, because she told him not to come.orGladys and Jellybean return.Post 2x21.





	gladys

**Author's Note:**

> Yo I know Jug isn't dead but that episode gave me feels and I'm vvv excited for Gladys and JB to return.

Gladys Jones is on her way to work when FP calls. 

Her ten-year-old daughter is with her- walking behind her, carrying her school bag and a thermocol model of the solar system that her grandmother helped her with.

It had just rained, and Toledo was chilly that morning. Gladys’ shoes squelch on the sidewalk-and as she eyes puddles she also suppresses the memory of her other child jumping in them, in too-tight wellingtons, during a time too long ago.

“Zip up your jacket, honey,” she instructs, stopping and taking the solar model to free up Jelly’s hands. Jellybean complies, humming along.

Her phone then rings, and normally she doesn't pick up unknown numbers, but she notices that it's from Riverdale. Her heart feels heavy. It’s been almost a year and a half since she left with Jellybean. A year and a half in Toledo.  A year and a half since she made a decision she’s still not sure was the right one.

She sets the model on a nearby bench and picks up, wondering if it was her son calling again. She would still have to turn him away. Guilt pangs in her chest but she ignores it, convinced that she made the right choice.

It isn't her son calling.

It's her husband, bearing news about their son instead.

So then the model lies on the bench forgotten as the two figures hurry away.

 

On the bus, she cries silently while Jellybean looks the other way and squeezes her hand instead.

They wouldn't have been on this bus.

He would’ve been walking to school with them that morning.

He wouldn’t have been on the brink of death, lying broken and bruised on a hospital bed.

But he is, because she told him not to come.

 

They get to Riverdale in three hours and it’s about eleven AM. Gladys steps out with her hand in Jellybean’s and ignores the wave of nostalgia and regret that hits her, calling a cab to the Hospital immediately. 

She still knows this place like the back of her hand.

The cab comes and the cab goes, with them in it, past Pop’s, past the Drive-In, past a sign for Sunnyside. Jellybean presses her face up against the window- she’s being hit with physical reminders of her brother.

It occurs to Gladys that this is Jellybean’s first time back in Riverdale after she was forced to leave in tears. It is Gladys’ too, but she wasn’t the one who didn’t want to leave.

She stares at the back of the driver’s seat for the rest of the trip to the hospital.

 

They get there and Gladys remembers how much time she spent here years ago. She remembers being a constant presence by her daughter’s side while her kidney failed. And then things got better. (Barring their financial status.)

Her heart is thudding uncontrollably at this point. Her hands shake. Her voice can’t seem to work, because it is Jellybean who asks the receptionist for Jughead.

“I’m his mother,” she manages, and the receptionist nods. 

They are taken down three hallways and past an ICU into a corridor of rooms. They come to a stop in front of a door on which ‘Forsythe Jones’ is hastily written on a white slip with a marker.

The nurse knocks and the door opens and Gladys feels faint.

 

_ Three broken ribs. Sprained ankle. Broken collarbone. Dislocated shoulder. Punctured lung. A major laceration on his upper arm. Concussion. We hope he wakes up soon. _

Words go flying over Gladys’ head as she tenderly sits on a chair beside her son. She doesn’t touch Jughead. She merely just stares at his face and tries not to drown.

_ She walks into the store intending to buy just a needle and some thread but they she sees the grey wool and an idea occurs to her. _

Jellybean and FP stand together leaning on the opposite wall. Jellybean is crying. This was the Jones reunion they had in the worst absolute circumstances.

_ Every day, after her late night shift, when Jellybean has gone to sleep and FP is with the Serpents, she knits. She is good at it. She finds peace in it. _

But there is also a girl who refuses to leave. Gladys remembers her- she is Betty and from what she gathers is now her son’s girlfriend who is also staring at her. Her coat hangs over her chair and Gladys can see that it’s soaked with blood.

But she pays no heed and looks at her son.

_ Nothing will replace her joy when she sees he loves it. She gives it to him the day he’s out of juvie. He pulls it over his black wavy hair immediately and she thinks it suits him.  _

He is almost unrecognisable, with tubes coming out of his mouth, nose, for nutrition, for oxygen. His left eye is swollen shut. His arm is swathed in bandages. He is not breathing on his own.

There is not much blood on him but she can still make out that his pale skin is tinted red.

_ He never takes the beanie off after that. _

She spots his beanie hanging on his IV pole.

Her hands are still trembling.

Gladys wants it to all stop so she leaves the room.

 

She doesn’t expect the girl to follow her.

She’s sitting outside, after fleeing past Archie and his father. (She didn’t stop to say hi.)

She’s on a bench, and from here she can see where FP parked his motorcycle. She'd spent a lot of time on that motorcycle.

She can’t think. She can’t breathe. She’s drowning in guilt and sadness and despair and she regrets every decision she’s ever made.

“Mrs Jones?”

Gladys looks up at the girl- Betty.

“May I sit?”

She makes space and Betty sits.

“You’re Jughead’s girlfriend.”

Betty nods. Gladys can see her dark circles and red-tinged eyes.

“Jughead called me when FP got arrested.” Gladys begins. There is something about this girl which makes her speak. “He called me, asking if he could come to Toledo, stay in my mother’s house for a while, and I had no valid reason to say no.” 

Betty listens silently.

“But I did. I did because I wasn’t ready to face him after I’d left him. He reminds me so much of FP, too, and I couldn’t face that either. So I said no.”

There is a lump in her throat again.

“And I drove Jug to homelessness. Did you know he stayed at the drive in for a month, Betty?”

Betty shook her head. “No.” she whispered.

“He didn’t tell me. Pop Tate did- I worked for him- and he gives me a call one day and tells me but I still don’t do anything.”

Betty doesn’t say anything, but her fists curl up a little tighter.

“I know what you must think of me, Betty, I know. I detest myself too. I don’t know the full story, but I put Jughead here.”

She starts crying. “ _ I put him here, I did, I did.” _

She feels an arm on her back and Betty is comforting her. “Mrs Jones, it isn’t only your fault. It’s FP’s, it’s mine, it’s Jug’s too. It's either no one's or everyone's. There’s a lot to tell you.”

And then they sit there for half an hour while Betty tells Gladys everything.

  
  


Four of them keep constant vigilance. Somebody brings an extra bed into the room. Alice Cooper visits frequently, bringing clothes and food. 

Gladys can see there's something between Alice and FP again. She won't be jealous anymore.

Others come and go.

There is a huge group of leather-clad teenagers- the new generation of Serpents. They are grateful to Jughead for what he did.

Archie and Fred Andrews are frequent visitors too. 

She sees new faces, old faces. But she stays put in her chair.

For two days, they watch F.R.I.E.N.D.S. on the small TV in the corner, they play cards, they read, they talk, but there isn't any happiness in their actions. 

Jughead still lies unconscious.

  
  


Betty and Jellybean are asleep. Jellybean is on her mother's lap and Betty is curled up on the chair across Gladys. FP is outside, forced to leave to deal with bills and insurance and other documents.

Jughead's eye swelling had reduced considerably by now, and the red tint has disappeared. Gladys isn't sure that it's a good thing because now he seems paler than ever.

She's dressed in a pastel cardigan with jeans- borrowed from Alice Cooper. She is playing with Jellybean’s hair, braiding it exactly how she used to years ago.

Jughead's finger twitches.

Gladys notices. She sits up, awakening Jelly in the process.

“Mom?”She murmurs.

And then Jughead's eyes slowly open. She can see just a small sliver of blue-green, but it's still something and she stands up, clasping his hand.

“Juggie?” Jellybean says, putting her face right in front of his.

Betty wakes up, too. 

All three of them stand in front of him, peering into those blue-green eyes they're so so so glad to see, but then-

The monitor starts beeping. He starts choking on the tube in his mouth. His left arm, the one that hasn't been as hurt as the other, grasps at the tube and he makes this strangled noise that's even worse because he hasn't had water in almost three days.

His heart rate is flying and nurses and doctors come rushing in, pushing the three girls to the edge of the room while they work on Jughead.

He keeps fighting them, further aggravating his injuries.

In the end, they sedate him again.

 

Gladys and FP send Jellybean away with Fred.  After Jughead panicked earlier, Jellybean freaked out and cried and wouldn't stop for an hour and Gladys sent her away because no little sister should see that.

Jellybean does not go willingly. She screams and kicks and cries again and even almost bites Gladys but in the end, she relents.

“We won't leave Jug when he wakes up. Not this time. We'll move back.” Gladys promises her, and that's enough.

She will visit with Fred and Archie but she'll sleep in their house.

Eventually, Betty is forced to leave the hospital too, and it is only Gladys and FP that stay overnight.

  
  


Jughead wakes up when Gladys is asleep. Her head is on the bed, face turned towards her son, and it is about 3 am, five days after he got admitted. She is deep asleep- absolutely exhausted from doing nothing but sitting by her son. 

She wakes only when she feels a weak hand touching her forehead. Stirring, Gladys opens her eyes to see the blue-green once again, and this time he isn't panicking.

“Jughead.” 

She calls the nurse, yelling out her name, and she apologises when Jughead winces. “I'm so sorry, honey,” she says, tears welling up in her eyes because  _ he's awake _ .

The doctor comes in and declares that Jughead can now breathe on his own and removes his intubation tube. 

“Mom?” He says, in the croakiest, roughest voice she has ever heard in her life but she nods. 

“I'm so sorry, Jug.”

She cries, Jug cries, and when FP comes in he cries too, until Jug goes under again and the doctor confirms that he'll be okay.

  
  


Jughead cries again when Jellybean and Betty arrive together. He still cannot speak much, and he does nothing but smile when Jellybean jumps up on the bed with him, half hugging him so she doesn't hurt him.

Betty sleeps on the bed with him that night, and Gladys finally goes to the trailer. 

  
  


The trailer then becomes her home once again, when Jughead is released two weeks later.

FP is busy with the Serpents, Betty and JB have school again, and even though trouble in Riverdale isn't over yet, there's a brief reprieve.

Jughead and Gladys make up. They spend the most time with each other, repairing a familial bond that had been fractured when she left.

While he heals, their relationship heals too, and Gladys, despite the circumstances under which these events happened, is finally truly happy. She is with her family again.

But everything isn't completely okay. This isn't the perfect happy ending- Jellybean gets nightmares a lot now. Gladys wakes up on the pull out bed in the living room once, hearing frantic sobbing and comforting shushing noises in the room where Jughead and Jellybean sleep. 

She treads carefully and peeks into the room- Jellybean is curled up in her brother's still-bandaged arms, but Gladys doesn't interrupt. She walks away, hearing things about 'nightmares about you dying, Juggie’, but she knows no one but Jughead will help Jellybean.

 

She isn't in love with FP anymore but they work- their kids matter most. Jellybean is happy, too, despite the night terrors, and Gladys knows Jellybean will only be happy with her brother.

She gets to know Betty, too. She develops a fondness for the blue-eyed blonde girl and when Jughead is asleep during her visits (even though he fights his drowsiness to spend time with Betty), they talk. They talk about Jug, they talk about writing, they talk about everything and Gladys loves it.

 

Gladys reads Jug's work, too. He reluctantly shows it to her, but later she finds out that she's the only one who got a glance at his novel.

She reads his articles, too, and she can recognize the talent he has. She has it too.

 

Eventually, all is well.

 

Until it's not.

A month later, a Ghoulie stabs her through the chest, and her last dying thought isn't of regret- it's of satisfaction that she came back. 

 


End file.
